1. Field
The present invention relates to a file sharing system and method through an instant messenger, and more particularly, through a group messaging system through a bidirectional interlock between a messenger server and a cloud server.
2. Discussion of the Background
Generally, the Internet is an open network configured to apply a common protocol called a Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to participant computers. Users of the Internet may use various services, such as, exchange multimedia information, exchange an e-mail, exchange a file, navigate the World Wide Web (WWW), and the like, as well as, exchange basic character information.
With a rapid increase in the use of the Internet domestically and globally, importance of the Internet as a strategic tool for increasing efficiency and productivity over all of the existing industries has rapidly increased. New business opportunities through the Internet have also been continuously created and fields of the new business opportunities through the Internet have expanded. Operators using the Internet have also gradually increased.
Users use a homepage, an e-mail, a telephone auto response service (ARS), or the like. However, the homepage and the e-mail feature low real time customer communication. The telephone ARS imposes a high communication cost on the user.
Instant messaging (hereinafter, referred to as a ‘messenger’) is useful for transferring information in real time using the Internet. An object of the messenger is to transfer a simple message between users in real time. When the messenger is used, two users may talk in real time through characters transferred, as if they directly converse with each other. The messenger's real time feature transfers an input content of the message immediately to the participant.
A messenger client program also transmits emoticons, flashcons, giftcons, or the like, to a chat participant through a messenger chatting window. The messenger client program also transmits a file using the chatting window as well as a function of simply transferring a message.
There is also a group chatting function where several persons may chat through a single chatting window as well as 1:1 chatting. In order to perform the group chatting, the user selects a plurality of chatting participants in the messenger client program to request the plurality of chatting participants for the chatting, thereby creating a group chatting window or adding chat to a created chatting window.
In order to transmit a file to the plurality of chatting participants, the user drags and drops a file to be transmitted in the group chatting window or selects a file transmission command in the messenger client program. FIG. 2 illustrates a method for transmitting a file in a group chatting window according to the related art. When the transmission of the file to the participants in the messenger chatting group is executed, a file transmission state 220 for group members 210 is displayed in a group chatting window 200. When one of the group members 210 requests file transmission, the file is transmitted to each of other group members 210. The transmission of the file is displayed to each of the group members 210 and starts when corresponding group members 210 allow file transmission.
FIG. 1 illustrates a system for sharing a file in a messenger according to the related art. A sender accesses a messenger server 120 using a terminal 110, for example, a personal computer, a laptop computer, a smart phone, or the like, to execute a messenger program and create a group chatting window. The sender transmits a file 101 stored in a terminal 110 or a personal cloud server 100a to the participants participating in group chatting through the group chatting window shown in FIG. 2.
The file 101 transmitted by the sender is transmitted to user terminals 130 of the recipients in a peer to peer (P2P) scheme or a temporary storage of the messenger server 120. The recipients accept a file to be received through the group chatting window, and the file is transmission starts. The respective recipients may receive the file through a mobile client program and store the received file in a personal cloud server 100b, or store the received file in a local device or a personal cloud server 100c through a desktop client installed in the PC, or the like. The recipients may store the received file in a local device or a personal cloud server 100d through a web client.
The method for sharing a file through a messenger according to the related art has the following problems. First, a single file is repeatedly transmitted to each of a plurality of recipients, such that an overload may be incurred in a network. When the number of users participating in the group increases, network load is generated, and the same file is repeatedly copied in the local devices or the personal cloud servers of several users.
Further, in the related art, complexity of a group activity process like file synchronization is high. Because transmitted individual files are present in the local devices or the personal clouds of each of the users. When a specific recipient modifies the stored file, synchronization between the modified file and files stored in the local devices or the personal clouds of other users is not performed. In an environment in which a file transfer client is not installed in the messenger, group file sharing becomes inconvenient.
A method for compressing and transmitting a file in a cloud system has been described in Korean Patent No. 10-1035302 entitled “Cloud System and Method of Compressing and Transmitting Files in Cloud System” by ESTsoft Corp. However, Korean Patent No. 10-1035302 does not provide a method for sharing a file between users formed as a group through a messenger, and does not solve problems, such as, overload in a network and an increase in complexity of a group activity process for a shared file, even though the technology disclosed is combined with the messenger.
Therefore, a method for effectively sharing a file between group chatterers of a messenger and a method for effectively controlling a group activity for a shared file would be useful.